School plan makes some shifts in class sizes, educational programs

Published 9:51 pm, Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The $213 million spending plan is a $5.3 million, or 2.5 percent, increase from last year. The district will receive $71.19 million in state operating aid for the 2013-14 school year — a 5.2 percent increase from 2012-13 — but the proposed budget also draws nearly $7.5 million from the district's reserves to balance the books.

Forty-two of the positions being cut are substitutes, which can be eliminated by improving teacher attendance and scheduling professional development outside of regular school hours.

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Two seek library seat

In conjunction with the May 21 Albany school district budget vote, the Albany Public Library will have a contest for a board of trustee seat.

John D. Davis, of Ten Eyck Avenue and Jose M. Lopez of View Avenue are running for the seat of Mimi Mounteer, who died in January. A candidates' forum starts at 6 p.m. May 15.

The 2014 library budget, which carries no tax levy increase, will be presented as well.

"We've made prudent cuts while preserving programs," she said. "It's still a lousy budget but it's the best we can do. Nobody wants do a budget where you're cutting positions for some of the neediest students in the Capital Region."

The district has cut 300 positions in the last five years in an effort to balance its budgets. Other positions being trimmed include a GED teacher, a foreign language teacher in middle school, a data entry clerk, two security supervisors and two maintenance jobs. Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard proposed an increase in some class sizes and reductions in those that are underenrolled, including some music, arts and health courses.

The spending plan adds three new high school teachers who will work with freshmen, including one who will work with students who speak English as a second language. Most students who drop out of the school leave during freshman or sophomore year, and about half of Albany High School's students do not graduate in four years.

The budget adds five days of professional development for teachers and updates the district's technology by replacing 200 computers and adding wireless Internet connections in all buildings. District officials also backed off a plan to cut Chinese classes from the high school.

The district will send just under $35 million to the nine charter schools expected to operate in the city next year.

The state's so-called 2 percent tax cap does not actually limit district tax levies to that amount but is one part of a complicated eight-step formula that limits school district spending, though the actual allowable growth rates varies widely among districts.